Decatur Comes From Behind in 6th to Defeat Riverwood 7-4

The Decatur Lady Bulldogs overcame an early 0-4 deficit to win 7-4 in a key in conference match-up against Riverwood Wednesday evening. The bottom half of the line-up came up huge for Decatur as Emily Miranda and Kai Zokovitch each had multiple hit games and were offensive sparks in the 2nd, 4th and the 6th inning. Quincy Pritchard picked up her first win of the season, throwing seven complete innings, allowing four hits and striking out 8 Riverwood Raiders.

Riverwood jumped out to an early lead as Pritchard and the Decatur defense were a bit unsettled to start the game surrendering three runs on two hits, three walks and an error in the 1st Inning. Riverwood added another run in the third inning and were firmly in the control of the game behind Alisa Steel’s pitching. It wasn’t until the fourth inning that Decatur’s offensive cut into the lead. Kyra Council singled on a hard ground ball up the middle, and Miranda followed with a line drive to left. Kailyn McArthur effectively moved the runners over with a ground ball to the right side, and after a nine-pitch at bat, Zokovitch walked on a wild pitch. Council scored on the wild pitch, and Zokovitch never hesitated as she flew around first-base and attempted to steal second, which forced a throw down. A combination raw speed and a text-book backdoor slide enabled Zokovitch to avoid the tag and reach second safely as Miranda waltzed in from third cutting the Riverwood lead in half.

With the lead, Prichard and the Decatur defensive became very stingy, retiring the Riverwood hitters in order in the bottom of the fourth and allowing just a hit and walk in the fifth. With two outs in the top of 6th inning, Miranda jump started the offense again with a double to center that short-hopped the wall. McArthur then walked, and Zokovitch slapped a soft roller between third and short that left no time to throw her out. Miranda slid safely into third beating a retreating third baseman to the bag. With the rally in full swing and pressure mounting on Steel, Sara Moss hit the first pitch she saw on a line to left that dropped in and skipped past the charging left fielder, scoring three and giving Decatur the lead 5-4.

Prichard retired the side in order in the 6th and Decatur added two more insurance runs in the top of the 7th inning. After a strike-out to lead off the bottom of the 7th, Decatur allowed two Raiders to reach on errors, but quickly recovered from the second as Miranda came up big again with a throw home to catcher Abbey Gilbert who tagged the advancing runner out at the plate. The game ended on a high shallow fly to left field that fitting was caught by a charging Zokovitch.

After losing to Lithia Springs (4-1) and beating Grady (17-1) last week, with this win Decatur now 2-1 in Region play. The Lady Bulldogs take on regional opponent Banneker today at Oakhurst Park; game time is 5:55PM.

Quincy Prichard pitched a complete game in Decatur victory Thursday.

Kai Zokovitch swipes second base on a walk sparking Decatur’s come-from-behind rally.